1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally portable data entry terminal devices and particularly to portable printing data entry terminal devices.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
The prior art shows printers, such a thermal printers for printing bar code labels, which are combined with data terminal units. For example, thermal label printers are known which include components, such as a label printer in combination with a data terminal. These units may be coupled together to be used as a hand-held unit, or they may be used as table units, in which they may be physically connected only by cables. In other instances, the data terminal units and the printing units appear as unitary structures. Data terminal units may include a keyboard and a display on an upper face of a housing. A data terminal unit as a portable unit would also include a self-contained power source, such as a rechargeable battery, further including a power input plug to recharge the battery. A bar code reader device is also known as being connectable to such data terminal device. Thus according to the art the desirability of a portable device for entering data and then printing information, including bar codes, has been shown. However, at this time, improvements aimed at reducing weight, simplifying the operation of a printing data entry terminal device and also further increasing the versatility of such a printing data entry terminal device remain desirable.